Heretofore, streams of high velocity fluid, typically water, produced for jetting and cutting applications and the like have been produced through nozzles having a round orifice that forms a round or circular cross-section stream. It is apparent that a round stream, particularly a high velocity stream, is subject to rapid disintegration as it travels through air. This is thought to be due to the Von Karman Streets effect along the surface of the flowing stream which produce eddy currents in the surrounding fluid which causes a stream to break up after it leaves the nozzle. High pressure streams having a fan-shaped configuration have been used in the past to clean various surfaces. While streams of this shape have relatively little turbulence and thus suffer relatively small degradation of the spray pattern from air turbulence, these fan-shaped sprays do not provide the high level of concentration of flowing mass obtained from round-shaped streams.
An object of the present invention is to provide a nozzle having a cross-section which is non-circular and which is formed of a plurality of segments having highly polished interior surfaces for fluid contact and for improving the cohesiveness of a stream of high pressure fluid.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high velocity fluid jet nozzle for providing a nozzle bore which produces a triangular shaped jet stream with the nozzle being formed in three segments, each having a ground and highly polished surface for contact with the fluid.
Yet another object is to provide a high pressure fluid jet formed of three or more ground and polished surfaces so as to produce a non-circular cross-sectional stream. It is a further object to provide a high velocity fluid jet nozzle with highly polished flat segments including a stepped shoulder and an outlet passage having a cross-section slightly larger than the inlet passage cross-section, adjacent to the tapered end of the inlet chamber.